Shell recovers oil from North Sea spill

LONDON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Royal Dutch Shell said it completed the first part of a cleanup operation related to an oil spill at its Gannet platform in the North Sea last year.

Oil leaked from the Gannet platform in the North Sea in August 2011. The release totaled around 1,300 barrels of oil, making it the largest oil spill in the region in more than a decade.

The British Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention said it approved Shell's plans to extract the residual oil left in a pipeline.

Shell confirmed it was able to remove residual oil from one of the pipelines tied to the platform, energy reporting website Rigzone reports. The oil removed from the carrier pipeline was sent to a waste oil contractor operating onshore.

The company said it expects to conduct further oil recovery operations early next year.

No oil from the Gannet spill reached shore and much of the original sheen dispersed naturally. The British government had said the main leak was stopped by Aug. 19, 2011, nine days after it was reported.

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